Neurosurgery Commons^™

Intravenous Thrombolysis Beyond The Conventional Time Window For Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Shaan Patel, Shiva A. Nischal, Kush M. Kale, Michael R. Gooch, Stavropoula I. Tjoumakaris, Pascal Jabbour

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

IMPORTANCE: Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) is an established therapy for acute ischemic stroke when administered within 4.5 hours of symptom onset. However, many patients present beyond this window or with unknown onset, and recent randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have evaluated whether imaging-selected patients may benefit from thrombolysis in the extended window.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the functional and safety outcomes associated with IVT administered 4.5 hours or more after stroke onset.

DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were systematically searched from database inception through March 3, 2026.

STUDY SELECTION: RCTs enrolling adults with acute ischemic stroke treated …

Improved Technical Outcomes With Converting Thrombectomy Techniques After Failed First Pass Recanalization, Hidetoshi Matsukawa, Charles Matouk, Kazutaka Uchida, Sami Al Kasab, Mohammad-Mahdi Sowlat, Sameh Samir Elawady, Ilko Maier, Pascal Jabbour, Joon-Tae Kim, Stacey Q Wolfe, Ansaar T Rai, Robert M Starke, Marios-Nikos Psychogios, Edgar A Samaniego, Adam S Arthur, Hugo Cuellar, Brain M Howard, Daniele G Romano, Omar Tanweer, Justin R Mascitelli, Isabel Fragata, Adam Polifka, Joshua W Osbun, Roberto Javier Crosa, Min S Park, Michael R Levitt, Waleed Brinjikji, Mark Moss, Richard Williamson, Pedro Navia, Peter Kan, Reade Andrew De Leacy, Shakeel A Chowdhry, Mohamad Ezzeldin, Alejandro M Spiotta, Shinichi Yoshimura, Ali M Alawieh

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: A higher number of recanalization attempts reduces the efficacy of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) for acute ischemic stroke secondary to large vessel occlusion (LVO). We assessed the impact of switching EVT techniques after a failed first pass on procedural and clinical outcomes.

Methods: This multicenter international study, conducted between January 2013 and December 2022, included patients undergoing EVT for anterior circulation LVO (internal carotid artery or M1 segments) with failed first pass recanalization. Propensity score matching identified a 1:1 matched cohort of patients in whom EVT technique was changed after a failed first pass and those with the same technique …

Predictors Of Perioperative Stroke In Patients With Ischemic-Type Moyamoya Disease Treated With Surgical Revascularization: A Retrospective Multicenter Study, Basel Musmar, Joanna M. Roy, Hammam Abdalrazeq, Elias Atallah, Kareem El Naamani, Ching-Jen Chen, Roland Jabre, Hassan Saad, Jonathan A. Grossberg, Adam A. Dmytriw, Aman B. Patel, Mirhojjat Khorasanizadeh, Christopher S. Ogilvy, Ajith J. Thomas, Andre Monteiro, Adnan Siddiqui, Gustavo M. Cortez, Ricardo A. Hanel, Guilherme Porto, Alejandro M. Spiotta, Anthony J. Piscopo, David M. Hasan, Mohammad Ghorbani, Joshua Weinberg, Shahid M. Nimjee, Kimon Bekelis, Mohamed M. Salem, Jan-Karl Burkhardt, Akli Zetchi, Charles Matouk, Brian M. Howard, Rosalind Lai, Rose Du, Rawad Abbas, Georgios S Sioutas, Abdelaziz Amllay, Alfredo Munoz, Nabeel A Herial, Stavropoula I Tjoumakaris, Michael Reid Gooch, Robert H Rosenwasser, Pascal Jabbour

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a chronic cerebrovascular disorder characterized by progressive stenosis or occlusion of the internal carotid arteries and the development of collateral moyamoya vessels. Surgical revascularization is commonly used to prevent future ischemic events in ischemic-type MMD, but there remains a high rate of stroke perioperatively. This study aims to analyze the predictive factors for perioperative stroke in patients with ischemic-type MMD undergoing surgical revascularization using a large multicenter database.

METHODS: We conducted a multicenter retrospective study in accordance with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines. This study included patients with ischemic-type …

Endovascular Treatment Of Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients With Tandem Lesions: Antegrade Versus Retrograde Approach, Milagros Galecio-Castillo, Michael Abraham, Mudassir Farooqui, Ameer E Hassan, Afshin A Divani, Mouhammad A Jumaa, Marc Ribo, Nils Petersen, Johanna Fifi, Waldo R Guerrero, Amer M Malik, James E Siegler, Thanh N Nguyen, Sunil A Sheth, Albert J Yoo, Guillermo Linares, Nazli Janjua, Darko Quispe-Orozco, Abid Qureshi, Wondwossen G Tekle, Asad Ikram, Syed F Zaidi, Cynthia B Zevallos, Belen Taborda, Alex Devarajan, Linda Zhang, Mohamad Abdalkader, Sergio Salazar-Marioni, Jazba Soomro, Weston Gordon, Aaron Rodriguez-Calienes, Juan Vivanco-Suarez, Katrina Woolfolk, Maxim Mokin, Dileep R Yavagal, Santiago Ortega-Gutierrez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: The optimal technique for treating tandem lesions (TLs) with endovascular therapy is debatable. The authors evaluated the functional, safety, and procedural outcomes of different approaches in a multicenter study.

Methods: Anterior circulation TL patients treated from January 2015 to December 2020 were divided on the basis of antegrade versus retrograde approach and included. The evaluated outcomes were favorable modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score (mRS score 0-2) at 3 months, ordinal shift in mRS score, successful recanalization, excellent recanalization, first-pass effect (FPE), time from groin puncture to successful recanalization, symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH), and 90-day mortality.

Results: Among 691 patients …

Endovascular Thrombectomy For Large Ischemic Stroke Across Ischemic Injury And Penumbra Profiles, Amrou Sarraj, Ameer E Hassan, Michael G Abraham, Santiago Ortega-Gutierrez, Scott E Kasner, Muhammad Shazam Hussain, Michael Chen, Leonid Churilov, Hannah Johns, Clark W Sitton, Vignan Yogendrakumar, Felix C Ng, Deep K Pujara, Spiros Blackburn, Sophia Sundararajan, Yin C Hu, Nabeel A Herial, Juan F Arenillas, Jenny P Tsai, Ronald F Budzik, William J Hicks, Osman Kozak, Bernard Yan, Dennis J Cordato, Nathan W Manning, Mark W Parsons, Andrew Cheung, Ricardo A Hanel, Amin N Aghaebrahim, Teddy Y Wu, Pere Cardona Portela, Chirag D Gandhi, Fawaz Al-Mufti, Natalia Pérez De La Ossa, Joanna D Schaafsma, Jordi Blasco, Navdeep Sangha, Steven Warach, Timothy J Kleinig, Faris Shaker, Faisal Al Shaibi, Gabor Toth, Mohammad A Abdulrazzak, Gagan Sharma, Abhishek Ray, Jeffrey Sunshine, Amanda Opaskar, Kelsey R Duncan, Wei Xiong, Edgar A Samaniego, Laith Maali, Colleen G Lechtenberg, Arturo Renú, Nirav Vora, Thanh Nguyen, Johanna T Fifi, Stavropoula I Tjoumakaris, Pascal Jabbour, Georgios Tsivgoulis, Vitor Mendes Pereira, Maarten G Lansberg, Michael Degeorgia, Cathy A Sila, Nicholas Bambakidis, Michael D Hill, Stephen M Davis, Lawrence Wechsler, James C Grotta, Marc Ribo, Greg W Albers, Bruce C Campbell

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Importance: Whether endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) efficacy for patients with acute ischemic stroke and large cores varies depending on the extent of ischemic injury is uncertain.

Objective: To describe the relationship between imaging estimates of irreversibly injured brain (core) and at-risk regions (mismatch) and clinical outcomes and EVT treatment effect.

Design, setting, and participants: An exploratory analysis of the SELECT2 trial, which randomized 352 adults (18-85 years) with acute ischemic stroke due to occlusion of the internal carotid or middle cerebral artery (M1 segment) and large ischemic core to EVT vs medical management (MM), across 31 global centers between October 2019 …

Experience With A Hybrid Recruitment Approach Of Patient-Facing Web Portal Screening And Subsequent Phone And Medical Record Review For A Neurosurgical Intervention Trial For Chronic Ischemic Stroke Disability (Pisces Iii), Brad J Kolls, Keith W Muir, Sean I Savitz, Lawrence R Wechsler, Julie G Pilitsis, Scott Rahimi, Richard L Beckman, Vincent Holmes, Peng R Chen, David S Albers, Daniel T Laskowitz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Recruitment of participants is the greatest risk to completion of most clinical trials, with 20-40% of trials failing to reach the targeted enrollment. This is particularly true of trials of central nervous system (CNS) therapies such as intervention for chronic stroke. The PISCES III trial was an invasive trial of stereotactically guided intracerebral injection of CTX0E03, a fetal derived neural stem cell line, in patients with chronic disability due to ischemic stroke. We report on the experience using a novel hybrid recruitment approach of a patient-facing portal to self-identify and perform an initial screen for general trial eligibility (tier …

Abnormal Motion Capture In Acute Stroke (Bionics): A Low-Cost Tele-Evaluation Tool For Automated Assessment Of Upper Extremity Function In Stroke Patients, Syed A Zamin, Kaichen Tang, Emily A Stevens, Melissa Howard, Dorothea M Parker, Allyson Seals, Xiaoqian Jiang, Sean Savitz, Shayan Shams

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The incidence of stroke and stroke-related hemiparesis has been steadily increasing and is projected to become a serious social, financial, and physical burden on the aging population. Limited access to outpatient rehabilitation for these stroke survivors further deepens the healthcare issue and estranges the stroke patient demographic in rural areas. However, new advances in motion detection deep learning enable the use of handheld smartphone cameras for body tracking, offering unparalleled levels of accessibility.

METHODS: In this study we want to develop an automated method for evaluation of a shortened variant of the Fugl-Meyer assessment, the standard stroke rehabilitation scale …

A Novel Specific Aptamer Targets Cerebrovascular Endothelial Cells After Ischemic Stroke, Heng Hu, Silin Wu, Tae Jin Lee, Aaron M Gusdon, Yuxin Liu, Huimahn A Choi, Xuefang Sophie Ren

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cell specific-targeted therapy (CSTT) for acute ischemic stroke remains underdeveloped. Cerebrovascular endothelial cells (CECs) are key components of the blood-brain barrier and are the first brain cells affected by ischemic stroke. After stroke, CEC injury causes insufficient energy supply to neurons and leads to cytotoxic and vasogenic brain edema. Aptamers are short single-stranded RNA or DNA molecules that can bind to specific ligands for cell specific delivery. The expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is increased on CECs after stroke. Herein, we report that an RNA-based VCAM-1-aptamer can specifically target CECs in stroke brains following transient middle cerebral artery …

Machine Learning And Acute Stroke Imaging, Sunil A Sheth, Luca Giancardo, Marco Colasurdo, Visish M Srinivasan, Arash Niktabe, Peter Kan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: In recent years, machine learning (ML) has had notable success in providing automated analyses of neuroimaging studies, and its role is likely to increase in the future. Thus, it is paramount for clinicians to understand these approaches, gain facility with interpreting ML results, and learn how to assess algorithm performance.

OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of ML, present its role in acute stroke imaging, discuss methods to evaluate algorithms, and then provide an assessment of existing approaches.

METHODS: In this review, we give an overview of ML techniques commonly used in medical imaging analysis and methods to evaluate performance. …

Dysregulated Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Is Associated With Increased Inflammation And Worse Outcomes After Ischemic Stroke In Diabetic Mice, Sehee Kim, Eun S Park, Peng R Chen, Eunhee Kim

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Diabetic patients have larger infarcts, worse neurological deficits, and higher mortality rate after an ischemic stroke. Evidence shows that in diabetes, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis was dysregulated and levels of cortisol increased. Based on the role of the HPA axis in immunity, we hypothesized that diabetes-dysregulated stress response exacerbates stroke outcomes via regulation of inflammation. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the regulation of the HPA axis in diabetic mice before and after stroke and determined its relevance in the regulation of post-stroke injury and inflammation. Diabetes was induced in C57BL/6 mice by feeding a high-fat diet and intraperitoneal injection …

Commentary: Use Of Bactrac Proteomic Database-Uromodulin Protein Expression During Ischemic Stroke, Gabriella-Salome K. Armstrong, Jacqueline A. Frank, Christopher J. Mclouth, Ann M. Stowe, Jill M. Roberts, Amanda L. Trout, Justin F. Fraser, Keith R. Pennypacker

Neurology Faculty Publications

Introduction: Uromodulin (UMOD) is a glycoprotein expressed by the epithelial cells of the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop in the kidney. Research has shown that increased uromodulin expression may be associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease in adults. Utilizing the Blood and Clot Thrombectomy Registry and Collaboration (BACTRAC) (clinicaltrials.gov NCT03153683), a continuously enrolling tissue bank, we aimed to examine the associations between serum uromodulin, age, and high BMI (BMI> 25) and its relationship to stroke in patients.

Methods: Arterial blood distal and proximal to the thrombus was collected during a thrombectomy procedure using the BACTRAC protocol and sent …